Ignivomous - Death Transmutation

IGNIVOMOUS - Death Transmutation (NUCLEAR WAR NOW! - CD 2009)

Nowadays many bands suffer for the malignant sickness called “I-tion-ism”. I’m not even gonna mention any names now, as there’s no point, besides I believe that every death metal maniac, who dwells in the underground and is familiar with the current wave of old school death metal will be able to name many of them. In this review I’m going to recommend you one more such band, whose “I-tion-ism” is very evident, but in this case this disease turned into something truly great. Ladies and gentlemen, here is Ignivomous from Australia! I again strongly believe that this band will be known to the diehard death maniacs, as Ignivomous has already been ripping our souls for few years and through this time they’ve delivered quite few recordings. Personally I knew the name for a couple of years, but only few months ago I finally managed to get some recordings of those Aussie maniacs and well… if I kept saying in other reviews that Disma made an enormous impression on me, then Ignivomous pretty much repeats that impact. To put is as simply as I can: “Death Transmutation” is a fuckin great record and it just shreds to pieces!

Hmm, I bet some of you will ask what the hell is that “I-tion-ism” for fuck sake? Well, the answer is very simple – it is when the band takes a huge influence from a couple of legendary New York troops of death: Incantation and Immolation. If their influence is audible in every sound and every riff of the music, then it certainly is an incurable disease called “I-tion-ism”, right? In my opinion Ignivomous has been infected by this virus also, but this is not a disadvantage, but a strong point and great value of their music, as in many ways “Death Transmutation” – just like the mentioned “People of the Monolith” of Disma – outdo what the “I-tion” bands did in the past decade or more. I feel utterly smashed by the heaviness, intensity and the whole incredibly dark and blasphemous mood of their music and it just really feels like a bulldozer run over my body and crushed every bone in it, leaving just a pile of rotten flesh and blood. Great advantage of Ignivomous’ “Death Transmutation” is that the music on is not really so focused on slow, almost doomy playing, what usually Incantation is famous for. It is actually the opposite and I can say that the enormous dose of “Death Transmutation” is fast or mid paced, what – if you add to this that brutal and powerful production – only increases the feeling of dealing with something uncompromising, extreme, massive and gigantic. There are of corpse some slower moments on the album, like in “Alchemy of Suffering”, which for sure belongs to the best songs, as well as “The World upon Nihil”, which also is more mid paced oriented, speaking of the tempo… but whether we speak of fast or slower tunes, for me the whole album is just incredibly strong and powerful, with nothing really what would bother me or what I wouldn’t like. When I’ve been listening to “Death Transmutation” I just felt totally amazed and astonished by the quality of Ignivomous’ music and well… I know that nowadays the death metal scene may be filled with similar kind of bands and that the real, traditional death metal is in good health once more, but you can trust me – not many bands have been able to capture that essence and power of this music in such a great way as it is on “Death Transmutation”.

In the end I must add that I like that quite untypical way of releasing “Death Transmutation”, which comes not in the standard jewel case, but in the bigger booklet, suitable for the 7”EP singles… It surely looks cool. Obviously I’ll also try to chase the vinyl version of this album, which I think came on picture LP, but for now I am just very happy to have this CD. Limited to 1000 copies, so you better try to add it to your collection, before it is too late.

Standout tracks: “Alchemy of Suffering”, “Beckoned to a Global Tomb”, “Hedonistic Pain Ritual”, “The World upon Nihil”

Final rate: 90/100